criticism of him. but that is the shame that is the job that heritage seems to want done. the problem is, place could help reverse that trend. that does it for us tonight and we will see you tomorrow. check out or blog at wonkblog.com. have a great night. twitter.com. up next, "first look." right now on "first look," egypt is bracing for more demonstrations after president morsi offers nothing to calm political crisis. in greece, police fended off protesters launching molotov cocktails. and in the u.s., the president is taking his fiscal cliff solutions directly to the people. plus, a modern-day spy story ripped from the pages of a tom

clancy novel. good morning, everyone. i'm lynn berry and we start with breaking news out of japan. a strong 7.3-magnitude earthquake has struck off the country's northeastern coast. that's the same region hit by last year's massive earthquake and tsunami. well, this morning's quake shook buildings as far as tokyo, and there are reports of a three-foot tsunami in the miyagi prefecture. the u.s. geological survey says there's no risk of a widespread tsunami, and so far, there have been no news of injuries or damage. of course, we're going to keep an eye on any aftershocks that occur and we'll bring you the very latest. well, elsewhere, all eyes are on cairo this morning as turmoil has once again overtaken egypt's capital. this time, it's in response to a politically explosive power grab by the democracy's president, mohamed morsi. right now, soldiers are setting up barricades as morsi's opponents plan a million man march in cairo's tahrir square later today. last night, army tanks surrounded the presidential palace as thousands of

protesters waved flags and shouted "topple the regime." you may remember, that's the same chant heard during the revolution that brought down egypt's dictator hosni mubarak. in a tv address thursday, morsi failed to defuse growing anger, saying his absolute powers will expire with a new vote on resolution and constitution on december 15th. speaking on human rights at a university in dublin, secretary of state hillary clinton called for urgent dialogue to ease the unrest in egypt. >> we call on all the stakeholders in egypt to settle their differences through discussion and debate, not through violence. >> clinton also called on egypt's leaders to protect the country's promise of post-revolution democracy. back here at home, as the fiscal cliff standoff continues in washington, the president took his plan out of town to northern virginia, where he sat down with a middle class family to talk about the potential impact they face from the looming fiscal cliff. it's now just 25 days away.

nbc's tracie potts joins us with the details from washington. tracie, good morning to you. >> reporter: lynn, good morning. the white house has been all over social media with this one, asking what would happen if your family had to pay another $2,200 next year in taxes? 100,000 people responded, including that northern virginia family that the president met with yesterday. they said $2,200 for them is a couple months' rent. >> for them to be burdened unnecessarily because democrats and republicans aren't coming together to solve this problem gives you a sense of the costs involved in very personal terms. >> reporter: the other big issue here on capitol hill, raising the debt limit. the president wants a new authority. mitch mcconnell filibustered his own bill. the senate minority leader filibustered his own bill that he had raised earlier about raising the debt ceiling. he called for a vote. democrats called his bluff and agreed to the vote.

then he talked that bill to death. unusual here on capitol hill. lynn? >> all right, tracie potts there for us on capitol hill, thanks. congressman chris van hollen of maryland spoke to ed schultz last night and discussed what democrats are willing to give up if speaker john boehner accepts ending tax breaks for people making more than $250,000 a year. >> what the president has said is we need $1.6 trillion as part of an overall deficit reduction plan, because if you don't get those additional revenues, but you also try and reduce the deficit, you end up whacking everybody else much harder. and so, it's really important to have that revenue number as high as possible. >> sure. >> look, the president's already been clear, ed. on cuts, he will continue to implement over the next ten years over $1 trillion in cuts that he agreed to as part of the budget control act, 100% cuts. and at the time, he said we've got to come back and do revenue.

he "life & style weeklalso call billion in cuts and laid out exactly what those should be. >> catch "the ed show" here at 8:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc, the place for politics. well, new jersey governor chris christie is making a personal plea for federal disaster aid in the wake of hurricane sandy. the republican governor paid an unannounced visit to the white house to ask the president for $83 billion in aid for new jersey, new york and connecticut. he also met with members of congress. it was their first meeting since touring new jersey disaster areas in late october. tea party leader and some say gop king-maker, senator jim demint of south carolina, is stepping down from congress, this happening on january 1st. demint will become head of the heritage foundation. that's a conservative think tank with an $80 million-a-year budget. demint is just two years into a second six-year term, and south carolina governor nikki haley will appoint his successor. so, 2012 was officially the most expensive election in american political history. the final reports show that

spending on the campaign broke the $2 billion landmark and milestone in its final weeks, helping set the record. las vegas casino mogul sheldon adelson and his wife poured more than $95 million into super political action committees that helped republicans, including mitt romney. this sounds more like a plot out of a tom clancy cold war novel. a rove navy sailor is suspected of telling top-secret submarine tracking technology to the russians. nbc affiliate reporter andy fox with wavy has this story. >> reporter: robert hoffman appeared in court wearing a t-shirt with a rooster on it with the words "born to fight," in reference to cock fighting. mr. hoffman, did you try to sell government secrets? just a big smirky smile from hoffman, who retired a year ago and is trained as a navy cryptologic technician. he is able to find submarines using sophisticated

direction-finding technology. the indictment reads hoffman had access to top-secret information which could cause exceptionally grave damage to national security. on october 21st, hoffman is accused of delivering secret information to people he believed to be officials with the russian federation on how to track u.s. submarines using the technology he learned on the job working for the navy. the information included the technology and procedures required to find the subs. hoffman delivered that information to fbi agents posing as an undercover operation. >> that was wavy's andy fox reporting. now, this morning's first look at your "dish of scrambled politics." comedian steve colbert of south carolina is ready to replace senator jim demint. oh, are you, now? his publicist in an e-mail saying "stephen is honored by the ground swell of support from the palmetto state and looks forward to governor haley's called." some conservatives are having emotional debates over

the fiscal cliff negotiations. the arguments for higher taxes for the wealthy are getting very tense. ann coulter even tried a reality check on sean hannity. >> are you saying, then, for pr purposes, that they should give in to obama on the tax rate? >> not exactly. well, yeah, i guess i am, but -- >> you're saying capitulate to obama, who -- we don't have a revenue problem, ann. >> we lost the election, sean. meanwhile, the house of representatives passed legislation yesterday removing the word lunatic from all federal laws. it's the latest move by congress to remove language seen as demeaning or out of date, like lunatic. and in australia, prime minister julia gillard talked about the supposed prediction by the mayan calendar that the end of the world is coming in two weeks. well, she did it for a comedy video for a radio show. >> i'm confident in the prediction that the world is about to end. whether the final blow comes

from flesh-eating zombies, demonic hill beasts or from the total triumph of cable, if you know one thing about me, it is this, i will always fight for you to the very end. and at least this means i won't have to do q&a again. good luck to you all. >> the dead-pan delivery, always important in comedy. that is your morning dish of "scrambled politics." and now for a look at your national weather, we turn to jillian drier, who's in for bill karins, who thinks he gets to sleep in. >> i hope he's sleeping and making use. extra time he has in the morning. you know, as far as the weather's concerned across most of the country, the northern half of the country is the area where we are seeing all of the rain, but it's hard to believe it is mostly rain. there's not a whole lot of frozen precip this december, really. starting off for most of us on the warmer side. so, we are just looking at some rain showers. it's out ahead of a cold front that is producing some pockets of heavy rain across illinois.

heaviest of the rain, though, is down into southeastern ohio right now, also moving into pittsburgh. there is a little bit of frozen precipitation in the form of snow and freezing rain, mostly up across canada, but you see that pink right in through central pennsylvania? that's where we do have a little bit of freezing rain mixing in, so roads could be slippery out that way. chicago's starting off with just rain and louisville will start to see some heavier pockets of rain as we continue through the morning. as for rainfall totals, it does look like southern ohio will see perhaps one to two inches of rainfall, and then that will slowly start to spread to the east. so, later on in the northeast, new york city and into the boston area, we will see a couple of rain showers later on today. lynn? >> all right, dylan, thanks so much. coming up, the big business of those obnoxiously ugly christmas sweaters. plus, new job numbers are out this morning. and we've got some shocking, new details about that horrific garment factory fire in bangladesh that killed 112 people. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] it's that time of year again.

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some stories making news this morning. in michigan, republican lawmakers pushed through a right-to-work bill, banning requirements that nonunion employees pay fees. it passed, despite protests from unions, and democrats call the law an attack on workers' rights. in greece, violent confrontations between protesters and riot police. the demonstration was to mark the fourth anniversary of the deadly police shooting of a teenager that triggered major protests in 2008. in bangladesh, an official says the fire that killed 112 people last month was in a garment factory that had lost its safety certification back in june. also, the factory owner was authorized to run a three-story business, but it was illegally expanded to eight stories, adding a ninth at the time of the late november blaze. and at the smithsonian museum in washington, the world's largest cut stone is now on display. the aqua amarine gem is more than a foot tall and weighs over

5 pounds. it's called the dom pedro gem, named after brazil's first two emperors. so, this morning we're going to find out how hard superstorm sandy slammed the economy with the government's november jobs report due out. economists fear sandy battered hiring with estimates of 80,000 to 93,000 jobs added, compared to 171,000 in october. but some good news, though, yesterday from yesterday's weekly jobless claims, which held steady right around the prestorm level. elsewhere, apple says it will begin making one of its mac lines right here in the u.s. next year. that will be good. bowing to growing criticism across the pond, starbucks is foregoing certain tax deductions that help to reduce its tax bill to zero in britain, and they've agreed to pay $32 million of money they do not owe. the securities and exchange says netflix chief reed hastings may have violated fair disclosure rules with a facebook post back in july, boasting monthly streaming hours passed 1 billion for the first time.

netflix stock soared 6% that day. ibm is revamping its retirement program with plans to now contribute to employee 401(k) accounts just once a year in a lump sum payment, disqualifying workers who leave the company before that date. the "wall street journal" reports "the washington post" will soon begin charging for online articles after a certain number of free ones. some sad news out of chicago, where the maker of the academy awards' oscar statuettes is planning to lay off nearly 100 workers before christmas. and finally, 'tis the season for a holiday party favorite. it's that ugly christmas sweater. do you have yours? well, if you don't own one, there's a high schooler that may come in handy for you. he buys them up at flea markets, thrift stores, yard sales, and then he sells them on his website for, get this, 20 to 50 bucks each. 50 bucks for that. and he does this all from his parents' basement. smart cookie there. all right, coming up, shoppers and everyone else who

rides an escalator, beware. we've got a story for you. plus, a house is engulfed in flames with a family still inside, including a loved one who lost their home to hurricane sandy. this is a story that has a somewhat happy ending. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. ♪ ♪ don't know what i'd do ♪ i'd have nothing to prove ♪ i'd have nothing to lose [ male announcer ] zales is the diamond store. take an extra 10 percent off storewide, now through sunday. it's so great to see you. you, too! oh, cloudy glasses. you didn't have to come over! actually, honey, i think i did... oh? you did? whoa, ladies, easy. hi. cascade kitchen counselor. we can help avoid this with cascade complete pacs. see, over time, cascade complete pacs fight film buildup two times better than finish quantum. to help leave glasses sparkling shiny! too bad it doesn't work on windows. okay, i'm outta here. cascade. the clear choice.

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sasha and malia last night pushed the button to light the national christmas tree on the ellipse behind the white house. well, here is your first look at some other news going on around america today. four holiday shoppers at a seattle macy's had to be hospitalized when the escalator they were riding malfunctioned. a store employee tells the "seattle times," she just heard screaming and then saw the escalator coming apart. another witness said the mechanical stairs started buckling. the cause is being investigated. in new york state, fire officials are trying figure out what exactly caused this west nyack home to go up in flames so quickly. neighbors reportedly heard an explosion. family members inside the home were luckily able to make it out in time, including a grandmother who had lost her own home during hurricane sandy. employees at a new mexico grocery store were shocked to find a semiautomatic handgun and several rounds of ammunition packed in a frozen meat shipment. the package came from a meat packing plant in colorado, and

now authorities in both states are working to track down the gun owner and determine if it was involved in any crimes. and finally, in san diego, eh, forget online dating. just purchase a billboard like this millionaire! it reads, "all i want for christmas is a latina girlfriend," along with his e-mail address, although i don't know if it will work too well. real estate mogul mark paskin is no stranger to the spotlight, starring in a reality show last year called "the secret millionaire." don't hold your breath, mark. thursday night football, broncos/raiders. denver quarterback peyton manning completed completion number 5,000 in his career, second place behind brett favre pt the broncos won 26-18 over oakland. to the nba now, where the knicks' raymond felton led the way for battle of first place in the eastern conference and new york had a big half to beat the heat 112-92. in phoenix, it was satisfaction guaranteed night,

but for fans, dallas took the lead in the fourth quarter and the mavs edged the suns 97-94. so, at least some phoenix fans should demand their money back and get it. and finally, the uniform jersey that yankees pitcher don larson wore in 1956 when he pitched the only perfect game in world series history has been sold at auction. it went for more than $750,000. larson sold it to pay for his grandchildren's education. it was bought by the ceo of a website called gottahaveit.com. i can almost see my father twitching, desperate for that jersey. and now for a look at the weather, here's nbc meteorologist dylan dreyer. she has the weather channel forecast. good morning once again, dylan. >> good morning to you. we are actually starting off with a decent morning in the northeast. a little chilly. temperatures are only in the 30s, but it's not raining yet. that rain is going to move in a little later this afternoon. for now, though, we have a cold front, and it's separating kansas city, which is in the 50s right now, versus denver, which

is down around 30 degrees to start off this morning. so we are going to see some of that cooler air begin to spread eastward over the course of the day. the northern half of the country, that's where we're going to see some rain showers. it's mostly rain showers, a few light snow showers will mix in, but you have to go up into minneapolis to see any of that. there's really not too much cold air across most of the country. then as we go into the weekend, again, a couple of rain and snow showers mixed in in minneapolis, but the northeast will start off the day especially with heavier pockets of rain. washington, d.c., though, starting the weekend with partly cloudy skies, temperatures in the 60s, so not too bad in the nation's capital. >> all right, dylan, thanks so much. just ahead, it's good to be a baldwin, and we have the mug shot to prove it. plus, america's beloved golden girl is honored in whoville. we'll tell you why. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. ♪ the weather outside is frightful ♪

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grammy nominees taylor swift did some beat boxing last night. i don't want to say it was awful, but people are just like, hey, is kanye west around? i don't know what to make of this, guys, but there's a series of forbidden love letters and drugs that peanuts creator charles shults sent to a woman while he was married is going up for auction. he was like, hey, baby, how'd you like to come over to my place and -- nice. gerard butler's trading in the sword for the shield -- or no, the sword and the shield, for soccer moms this weekend. a little slow this morning. "playing for keeps" is the only new release this weekend. it's being panned by critics. van dango.com currently has the

film's score at a dismal 23 out of 100. he's had a rough go at the box office. abraham lincoln brought together a divided nation and he'll be trying to do it again. the senate will be getting together for a screening of "lincoln" next week. steven spielberg will be on hand for q&a afterwards. maybe we can solve that fiscal crisis after all. betty white helped open grin grinchmas on wednesday and was awarded an award on behalf of animals. and steve baldwin decide to buck the trend of disheveled mug shots by looking well kept, even with the duck face going. baldwin was booked on tax evasion totaling nearly $350,000. and yesterday, justin bieber was given the snub by the grammys and his manager, scooter braun, decided to express his frustration through what we all

do, on twitter. he said that justin deserved the nomination, saying that the grammy board blew it on this one. i have to say, i'm not quite sure what the new bieber song is that came out this year. >> i can't keep any of those straight at all. >> you know you've got the poster like hanging up in the bedroom, come on. admit it. we all do. i'm lynn berry. this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned. "way too early" starts right now. ♪ for 40 years, every morning when i wake up, i look in the mirror, and it's me and my mustache, and we've gone many, many miles together. so, to be without it is going to be a profoundly weird feeling, but we raised $1 million for